A radar system includes an antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements; and a transmitter portion coupled to the antenna array, the transmitter portion being configured to sequentially transmit a first transmit beam and a second transmit beam from a single pulse, the first transmit beam and second transmit beam being formed using the same aperture of the antenna array, wherein a skew angle of the first transmit beam is distinct from a skew angle of the second beam. Such radar system alternatively transmitting through subarrays and receiving each via the entire array and combining the signals such that the transmit and receive parts of one of two 2-way beams point in the same direction and the transmit and receive parts of the second 2-way beam point in the same direction and these directions are within a standard beamwidth of each other.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
2. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the aperture is the entire aperture of the antenna array.
3. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the separation between the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam is less than or equal to a beamwidth.
4. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are made distinguishable on receive through at least one of time-division multiple access, code-division multiple access, or doppler-division multiple access.
5. The radar system of claim 4, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are formed with opposing chirp waveforms.
6. The radar system of claim 4, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are encoded as orthogonal phase shift keyed sequences.
7. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the first receive beam and the second receive beam are extracted according to at least one of time-division multiple access, code-division multiple access, or Doppler-division multiple access.
8. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the elevation angle of the target is determined according to at least one of amplitude-comparison monopulse, phase-comparison monopulse, or full-vector comparison monopulse.
9. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the elevation angle of the target is according to maximum likelihood estimation.
10. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the transmit portion is further configured to transmit a third transmit beam and a fourth transmit beam such that the first transmit beam, the second transmit beam, the third transmit beam, and the fourth transmit beam are distinguishable on receive, wherein the third transmit beam and the fourth transmit beam are formed from the single pulse and using the aperture of the antenna array, wherein the third transmit beam is transmitted with a third skew angle and the fourth transmit beam is transmitted with a fourth skew angle, the third skew angle and fourth skew angle being mutually distinct and being orthogonal to the first skew angle and the second skew angle, such that an azimuth angle of the target is determinable on receive.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first transmit beam and second transmit beam are formed using the entire aperture of the antenna array.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein the separation between the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam is less than or equal to a beamwidth.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are made distinguishable on receive through at least one of time-division multiple access, code-division multiple access, or Doppler-division multiple access.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are formed with opposing chirp waveforms.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are encoded as orthogonal phase shift keyed sequences.
17. The method of claim 11, wherein the first receive beam and the second receive beam are extracted according to at least one of time-division multiple access, code-division multiple access, or Doppler-division multiple access.
18. The method of claim 11, wherein the elevation angle of the target is determined according to at least one of amplitude-comparison monopulse, phase-comparison monopulse, or full-vector comparison monopulse.
19. The method of claim 11, wherein the elevation angle of the target is according to maximum likelihood estimation.
22. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the aperture is the entire aperture of the antenna array.
23. The radar system of claim 21, wherein the first receive beam and the second receive beam are separated from the third receive beam and the fourth receive beam by less than or equal to a standard beamwidth.
24. The radar system of claim 21, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are made distinguishable on receive through at least one of time-division multiple access, code-division multiple access, or doppler-division multiple access.
25. The radar system of claim 24, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are formed with opposing chirp waveforms.
26. The radar system of claim 24, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are encoded as orthogonal phase shift keyed sequences.
27. The radar system of claim 21, wherein the first receive beam, second receive beam, third receive beam, and the fourth receive beam are extracted according to at least one of time-division multiple access, code-division multiple access, or Doppler-division multiple access.
28. The radar system of claim 21, wherein the elevation angle of the target is determined according to at least one of amplitude-comparison monopulse, phase-comparison monopulse, or full-vector comparison monopulse.
29. The radar system of claim 21, wherein the elevation angle of the target is according to maximum likelihood estimation.
30. The radar system of claim 21, wherein the transmit portion is further configured to transmit a third transmit beam from a third subarray and a fourth transmit beam from a fourth subarray, such that the first transmit beam, the second transmit beam, the third transmit beam, and the fourth transmit beam are distinguishable on receive, wherein the third transmit beam is transmitted with a third skew angle and the fourth transmit beam is transmitted with a fourth skew angle, the third skew angle and fourth skew angle being mutually distinct and being orthogonal to the first skew angle and the second skew angle, such that an azimuth angle of the target is determinable on receive.
32. The method of claim 21, wherein the aperture is the entire aperture of the antenna array.
33. The method of claim 21, wherein the first receive beam and the second receive beam are separated from the third receive beam and the fourth receive beam by less than or equal to a standard beamwidth.
34. The method of claim 21, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are made distinguishable on receive through at least one of time-division multiple access, code-division multiple access, or doppler-division multiple access.
35. The method claim 24, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are formed with opposing chirp waveforms.
36. The method of claim 24, wherein the first transmit beam and the second transmit beam are encoded as orthogonal phase shift keyed sequences.
37. The method of claim 21, wherein the first receive beam, second receive beam, third receive beam, and the fourth receive beam are extracted according to at least one of time-division multiple access, code-division multiple access, or Doppler-division multiple access.
38. The method of claim 21, wherein the elevation angle of the target is determined according to at least one of amplitude-comparison monopulse, phase-comparison monopulse, or full-vector comparison monopulse.
39. The method of claim 21, wherein the elevation angle of the target is according to maximum likelihood estimation.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
January 4, 2021
November 22, 2022
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